The Meathook Galaxy (NGC 2442/3)

About this Image

In the direction of the far southern constellation of Volans a fascinating barred spirel galaxy can be observed: NGC 2442.
NGC 2442 lies 50 million light years away and is thought to be disturbed by an unseen companion galaxy in former days.
At mag 11.3 and with an apparent angular size of only 5 arcmins, NGC 2442 is both dim and small.
Newer investigations at radio wavelenghts proved that NGC 2442 is embedded in a huge extragalactic gas cloud, not visible in optical wavelenghts.
Additionally extended interstellar dust is very obvious in the eastern part of this field.
Around NGC 2442 there are many galaxies, the brightest are PGC 21457, PGC 21406, NGC 2434, PGC 21212, PGC 21323, PGC 21369, PGC 21426 some of them physically related to NGC 2442 (starting from 9h clockwise)
North is up.

Below you see the center crop of the above image in 75/150% size.
Even below you see an enhanced image showing the interstellar dust in 18/36% size.